The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price is down 0.64% at $85.99 in late afternoon trading.
CBA shares are slipping despite the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) edging higher today, up 0.6%.
If CBA closes in the red today it will join Wednesday as the second day of losses this week. The Commonwealth Bank share price gains posted on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday are enough, however, to see shares up 2.4% over the past 5 days, beating the 1.4% gains on the ASX 200.
So let's take a look at what moved the Commonwealth Bank share price this week?
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One CBA legal headache subsides as another emerges
On Monday CBA, along with Australia and New Zealand Banking Grp Ltd (ASX: ANZ), reported it had settled a long-standing class-action suit in the United States.
The 2 big banks were part of a group of 17 financial institutions along with 2 international brokerage firms accused of manipulating the bank bill swap rate (BBSW) in the US.
The Commonwealth Bank share price closed up 0.44% on Monday following news that the 2016 lawsuit had been settled.
Today a new, though arguably much smaller, legal headache emerged from the bank.
According to the Finance Sector Union, CBA owes thousands of workers a total of $45 million as they've been unable to take the 10-minute tea breaks, which they are contractually allowed to take with pay. Commonwealth Bank has rejected the allegations and said it has yet to see any supporting evidence.
Concerns of bad home loans easing
As the coronavirus wreaked havoc on the Australian economy through much of 2020, analysts and economists were increasingly concerned that a wave of home loan defaults was on the horizon.
While those concerns haven't entirely disappeared, the most recent data from CBA showed the bank's consumer home loans in arrears had dropped during the second half of 2020. As at 30 June, 0.63% of Commonwealth Bank's consumer home loans were overdue by more than 90 days. By 31 December that figure was 0.57%.
Now that's not a huge decline, to be sure. But it's certainly moving in the right direction. If this positive trend continues in 2021, it may help support the Commonwealth Bank share price moving forward.
